Game Impressions Ok, last update until a revision arrives in the iTunes store. My rating remains a 2. I am playing with the Potions expansion, which improves the odds. I was able to get my win % up to 40% (8-12) and then lost five games in a row with totally no way to win (am now 9-18). Either it was a string of unbeatable Monsters or bizarre circumstances, like having to trap my own guys. I repeat, being forced to trap your own guys is ludicrous, the equivalent of being forced to take a red 6 off the black 7 in Klondike and ripping the card in half. This makes no sense. It's MY castle, why would I ever set a trap for MY guy?! I also had a situation where I had a Treasure Chest (x5) out with some dude worth 1400, my hero beat him and all I got anyway was 1400. Wow. So, there seems to be a bug as well. Great. In fairness, I'll revisit the game if any revisions are offered but as is, this is fun only if you enjoy losing a lot. I don't. The strategies (actually tactical manipulations) are usually trivial and the decision tree is not all that difficult or varied. The bump up/bump down abilities are a very nice mechanic but is easily overwhelmed by the luck of the draw. Given the potential for a really decent thinking game offered by the various abilities, I really think the excuse that "it's just solitaire" is rather lame. This game could be so much more. Since it is not, the appropriate rating is 2.
As it stands, I'd give the game a 5/5. Its about one of the only iPhone games that has me playing it consistantly. And more importantly has me WANTING to play it, and come onto forums to read and discuss it! Obviously no game is perfect, so a 5/5 is a bit over enthusiastic, but its just hit a sweet spot that seems to have connected with me. Its got theme, its quick fire, and its got depth and replayability.By the looks of it, it will have longevity through boosters/expansions and possibly a sequel. Big thumbs up here. I've tried Orions, and the card game is very similar to Astral Masters/Spectromancer, which isn't a bad thing, but the cards need a fair bit of play to become familiar with them, and you're battling a conjured AI (unless you go Astral Tournament or Multiplayer Spectromancer). However, I think the big draw back with Orions is, it just takes quite a bit of time to play, and the screen doesn't present all the information you need in clear concise bite size chunks. If I had time to play Orions properly, I'd want to play it on a PC or a console, not a handheld device as such. Dungeon Solitaire gives you ease of play, very simple mechanics, quick games, and you're battling against yourself, you're placing the monsters in the field. The shuffle mechanic is truly innovative, and livens the game up big time.
OK, first, love the game, but I am done playing it until the crashes stop. It is also a 1/5 star game as it stands. I have scored 500,000+ twice and 1300000+ once every one of these games crashed and the game was reset. It seems any time I get a good treasure stack the game crashes, not immediately, but several turns later. The other bug I encountered was that 9 slots were filled, a treasure in the discard pile. I flipped over the boulder card and placed the treasure in the 10th spot. The boulder could not be placed in the discard pile and had no were to be placed I had to forfeit this game...
Game Impressions Ok, apparently I have not read the forum sufficiently in depth. Seems there is an endless loop problem and I actually just encountered it with only THREE cards left. Sorry, Griptonite, but that is garbage programming. I will enter this update on iTunes later and re-rate it back to 1 star. That is atrocious. You're telling me this never came up in testing or that it was too difficult to fix? OMG.
Apparently, some folks missed it and it's been pushed down a bit, so I'll post it again 1.1 Update on the way! Preview: - Fixed the "stalemate" bug - Balance tweaks - Stability improvements - Support for future expansions The "stalemate" bug, BTW, is where the game doesn't detect a stalemate, where you have an infinite loop of cards at the end caused by bumping cards off the board. The current version detects the most common scenario, the update is a LOT better at detecting it and the more rare scenarios. That bug has been dealt with in the update, but in the meantime if you have it happen again, do this: touch the trap card to zoom it in, then touch it again to zoom out - it will then act as it should and let you continue play.
I've noticed that when I send a monster up or down into a trap card that has the opposite direction tie effect when it lands on that trap card it destroys the hero it fights, regardless of stats. Is that supposed to happen? and if so, why? I've been winning a lot more games now, and just posted my highest score of 600000. My best strategy is to use the 1-5 or 6-1 hero cards(those are their stats, I forget their names) as down pushers. they can tie with most monsters they come across. It's best to have one at the very bottom of the board and one at the top. You can equip a staff and an axe that have the push down tie effect. There are also trap cards with the effect, and it's worth it to place those trap cards on your side of the field. I use the 4-4 knight, the 3-4 rogue, the 2-6 mage, and the 3-5 elf as my monster slayers. I usually discard any +1 equipment and only use the +2 stuff. the potion that randomizes stats is perfect to use on a really weak hero or a really strong monster. the potion that increases stats +2 but kills the card after a battle is perfect to use against a monster that you place on stacked up treasure. That's how I scored my highest score so far. the equipment that has the death tie effect is best to use on the 2-6 mage or 6-1 hero cards. They'll still have a stat with 5 points, which should allow them to tie with most monsters you'll face. Watch out for that spider that has the death tie effect. it's stats are 3-2, there are only a few heroes that it won't kill.
And rating the game 1 or 2 stars? Nope. I was wondering why you were asking me if you should mail me your suggestions.
Game Impressions More game goodness (not!). Goblin Swarm 3/3 in top spot , unfortunately equipped with Down push ability. Fed him Wiggy +2/+2 just so he would die after the next fight and stop pushing my guys down and off the board. Can't beat him so have a Berserker Slave 6/1 with push Up battle him and instead of dying, the Goblins raid the Castle - third hit - game over. Question: is there a definitive resolution for effects? If Wiggy is supposed to make the critter die after battle, why is it surviving to attack the castle? Aaaarggh!
My guess would be any push off the board is resolved before attached buffs/debuffs are considered. A monster push up off the board is always going to hit the castle first. Monster Up = Bad, Monster Down = Good.
Yes, it is probably programmed that way but that should be in the tutorial or otherwise explained, that there is an order of how effects are resolved. As is, Wiggy is now incorrectly worded, since the character will not always die as cited. Still, I'd like to have the developer respond.
Yeah the effects take place before the potion does. that goblin sucks, too. that card and the spider card are both deceptively strong. The 6-6 dragon is easy to handle now that I know how to play the game better, but the 3-2 spider and 3-3 goblin can tie with everybody but the 4-4 knight. 3-4 rogue or 3-5 elf are the easiest to upgrade to beat either one. They just need a +1 equip to beat them.
Doesn't it say "dies after the next battle"? And if a position change occurs due to a special from the attacker, that would be logically resolved before anything on the defender, and thus the shift up and attack on castle happens before the effect of the buff/death card. I wouldn't mark the game down, because such nuances weren't explained thoroughly in a tutorial, or even manual to be honest. Its a quick blast solitaire card game, not a tournament level MtG game. For a fella who marks the game as 1/5 stars you're playing it an awful lot, and commenting on it a lot more than most. I guess you must see the latent potential
Yes, I see the latent potential and that's why it bothers me that there are as many bugs/inconsistencies as cited so far and far too many ways to be beat by circumstances, no matter how well you plan. That annoys the crap out of me. I want to like this game! I believe I am making fair assessments. If revisions correct problems and I'm still playing, I'll be happy to regrade the game.
But why should it have that much documentation? Sounds to me like you won't be happy until you see the base source code behind everything, and it works exactly has you have set in your mind A rules page or worse tutorial detailing out every tiny bit of detail in the orders of how it carries out every step in every card wouldn't tell *anybody* how to play the game. It might be useful in a strategy or reference guide, though. I mean, that card makes sense to me - if the card makes the character a +2/+2 that dies after the next combat, that tells me that the card will survive long enough for the +2/+2 be useful, and then after the combat is complete, the card will die. That's enough detail for most people, only someone who is relying on some advanced strategy that requires exact timing would need to know more. And thanks to your discovery about bumping off the top, we now know a little bit more
No, the potion's death effect resolves after the push effects. I noted a while back that including a list of resolution orders, etc. would be nice in the help. This is just one of those things you learn as you play. One other thing regarding your previous comment - you COULD have a trap in your own castle - a trap you laid out for monsters, and then your hero could end up triggering it by accident.
No, I do not need to see the source code. Again, the order of resolution does not make sense to me, especially since that is not the way it works with PUSH versus SKULL. In those cases, the SKULL takes preference and the character dies before the PUSH. Why should Wiggy be different? I will agree that to a certain extent I am nitpicking, but I am doing so because I would really, really like to like the game a lot more and rate it higher. I am rooting for the developers to develop this product, hone it, whatever, make it better! Re Wiggy, if other cards have the same possibility, of not precisely describing their effect, that cannot help but eventually confuse/turn off or otherwise frustrate the audience they seek to widen.
Great game This is so far the game I've played the most on my iPod. Very well thought out and executed. My only complaint so far is that it seems like there's a lot more equipment than there are heroes, and I find myself putting most of it in the armory and never get to use it. Perhaps in the expansion packs there can be some more balance brought to this. I also like the other posger's idea of allowing folks to buy cards with gold earned in the game. Keep the expansions etc coming and I think this game could be huge! Good job!
I think I may have hit a bug last night, but not sure - it could have been memory related. Twice in one game, in a battle in which I either should have won or we should have tied (can't remember), my hero just up and disappeared! No zoom animation showing it returning to the deck (which it shouldn't have anyway). I think both times it occurred after a push down (monster side), and I think both cards had push down on them (but not 100% sure on that). I tried matching up two push down cards directly, and it didn't happen (so maybe it had to do with the cards getting pushed down first).
